The Seahawks Need To Deal With The Fact They Lost The Game

LATROBE, Pa. -- NFL referee Bill Leavy may have come clean about mistakes he and his crew made during the Super Bowl four years ago, but it doesn't change the outcome and it certainly doesn't change the way the Pittsburgh Steelers feel about their victory over the Seahawks in that game.

"I'm not giving my ring back," Steelers wide receiver Hines Wardsaid Monday between practices at Steelers training camp. "You can' t change history. You can't go back in the record book just because a referee made some bad calls. I'm sorry that he said it, but there's nothing we can do. We can't turn back time."

Working practice at Seahawks camp last week, Leavy told the Seattle media that he regretted some calls that were made in that game and felt bad that they impacted the outcome.

"I'll go to my grave wishing that I'd been better," Leavy told reporters. "I know that I did my best at that time, but it wasn't good enough."

Seahawks players took the comments in stride, and Steelers players who were on that championship-winning team were asked about Leavy's admission Monday.

"If he really feels that way and it's really bothering him, then I genuinely feel bad for him," Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. "He's an official and I have nothing bad to say about him. I thought he called a great game."

Ward didn't necessarily agree with that. He just took the stance that there's nothing anybody can do about officiating calls, and there's no point in dwelling on them.

"He made some bad calls both ways," Ward said. "You just have to overcome. We never make excuses for referees making bad calls. We move on."

No surprise that the Steelers, who won their fifth Super Bowl that year and their sixth three years later, can take that stance. It must still be a little bit harder to swallow for the Seahawks, for whom that was the only Super Bowl appearance in team history. But here at Steelers camp, there wasn't a lot anybody could do about it but shrug and smile.